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by osunism



Series: Like Real People Do [4]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Mild Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 18:41:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6868897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osunism/pseuds/osunism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amamansa's deeds reach Zaeed. He has to confirm it for himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

“She did _what_?” Zaeed practically spat out his drink when he read the report. The extranet was on _fire_ with the news. No one would shut up about it, and they all talked about it as if they’d been there.

“Took down a Reaper. On foot. _Solo_.” Rick said, “And then made the Quarians and the Geth work together. She killed a Reaper and ended a 300 year long war. Shepard is a god, I’m convinced.”

Zaeed laughed. She was far from it, but he had to know for certain, had to hear it from her own lips. Amamansa was reckless, but he had to know she had a reason to go toe to toe with a Reaper on her own.

Later, he went to the Citadel when he heard the Normandy was dry-docked. She was happy to hear from him, of course, and when she invited him up to her new apartment, after his initial shock at the sheer size of the place, they’d fallen back into old habits.

Their kisses were more devouring than before, after so many months apart, worrying about the other’s safety. She got her claws in him pretty good, muttering some of the best filth in his ear he’d heard in a while with that low voice of hers, but when he folded her in half, throwing those muscled legs over his shoulders so she could take him, she calmed down. They shattered themselves on one another, violent, forceful, and consuming. And when exhaustion defeated them, they lay there, trying to catch their breath.

For a moment, the war was forgotten, and there was only the hazy aftermath of sex. Zaeed breathed deep and smiled.

“On fucking foot, Shepard? You’re crazier than I am.” He told her and she laughed into her arm, pillowing her chin to look at him.

“I was…really angry.”

“When aren’t you angry? If it’s not coffee you’re fueled by, I can tell you it’s rage. Madder than a goddamn krogan.” He shook his head, “You should have called me.”

Amamansa’s gaze slid away from his momentarily.

“I don’t want anyone dying on my watch, Zaeed. Especially not you. There wasn’t a lot of time and I was so fucking _tired_ of losing. I just wanted the Reapers to feel loss. Just once.”

Zaeed reached for her, ran his rough fingertips over the fissure-like scars on her back. She’d survived planetfall after suffocating. He didn’t know anyone who could boast the feats Ama could. She had more Reapers on her kill-count than any being in existence, and it kept climbing. She’d killed two thresher maws, one on foot, and fuck it all, she’d taken on her own goddamn clone not a few days before.

“I think you’re doin’ a pretty good job with that, sweetheart,” he told her, his rough voice gentler than usual, “but don’t forget you’ve got quite a few people who are good at killing who are ready to kill for you.”

Amamansa laughed again.

“Yeah, I haven’t forgotten you, Zaeed. How could I? You booby trapped my apartment.” She smirked. Zaeed didn’t even flinch.

“Goddamn right I did. Next time one of your clones fancies themselves stealin’ your life, they won’t live long enough to get comfortable.” He sounded so smug and Amamansa, shaking her head, let him have it. There were stranger ways to show someone they cared, after all.

She just couldn’t think of anything stranger than booby trapping someone’s home in case an evil clone showed up to kill them all.

“So,” Zaeed said, “tell me about this goddamn Reaper you took down. What’s this, your third? The rest of us can barely beat their grunts and here you come, Commander fucking Shepard, screaming in the faces of the damn things.”

Amamansa smirked. “Well, it was more…yelling obscenities and less screaming. Like I said, I was angry. We’d already lost so much ground. And I just thought, ‘well shit I might as well try while I’ve got the entire quartan fleet at my disposal.’ Next thing you know, it was me and that fucking Reaper. And it just kept getting closer and closer. Right before it really fried me, I locked in, and boom…what’s it you say? Arma-fucking-geddon.”

Zaeed laughed. That sounded like his girl alright.

“I think I got lucky,” she continued, “but I felt so good afterward I didn’t care. It tried to talk to me—they always try and talk to me—but I wasn’t hearing it. Told it to warn its friends that I was coming to collect my due.”

“I fucking hear that,” Zaeed agreed, “Only you could look a Reaper in the face and tell it you’re going to kill it and its friends too.”

Ama rolled onto her back, sighing as she stared up at the high ceiling of her bedroom. This place didn’t feel like home yet, not with the war still going on. It felt good, just not like home. But, as she fell asleep, she was thankful that she did not dream, and when she woke, she was thankful Massani was still there.

It was a start.


End file.
